Professor Pieter Visscher

Pieter has been collaborating with Brendan Burns ever since a chance meeting at a NASA Astrobiology meeting in 2006. Pieter has extensive experience working on microbial mats and stromatolites worldwide and established a very fruitful collaboration with the Burns lab over the last decade. Pieter heads a lab at the University of Connecticut and has a visiting position at Université de Bourgogne in Dijon. His work has focused on unravelling aspects of carbon and sulphur cycling. Later this expanded to a quest to understand “biosignatures”: gaseous and mineral products produced by these ancient ecosystems that may help the search for extraterrestrial life as well as help understand the Earth’s geological past. Pieter has a common interest in Shark Bay and has been involved in multiple field trips over the years that has helped drive the research of his and the Burns group forward. He has been involved with multiple publications and grant applications with Brendan Burns the connection is recognised with his appointment as an Associate Member of the Australian Centre for Astrobiology.